[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 157 (Wednesday, September 27, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4695-S4699]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SECURING GROWTH AND ROBUST LEADERSHIP IN AMERICAN AVIATION ACT--MOTION 
                         TO PROCEED--Continued

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.


                         Continuing Resolution

  Mr. REED. Madam President, many of us in this Chamber, on both sides 
of the aisle, work hard to govern responsibly, and we are deeply 
frustrated by those who are deliberately attempting to shut down the 
Federal Government.
  A fringe element of extremist House Republicans has pushed Congress 
to the brink of another costly, wasteful shutdown. A government 
shutdown of any duration would harm hard-working Americans and our 
economy. Shutdowns cost taxpayers billions of dollars per week. They 
cost businesses money. They could even cause a downgrade to the 
Nation's credit rating, and they force an unnecessary disruption of 
many vital services.
  Federal workers in all 50 States who perform essential work, like 
food inspectors, TSA agents, or park rangers, would stop getting 
paychecks. A Federal shutdown can halt projects and cause Federal 
lending to cease. Clinical trials and research at the NIH could be 
forced to stop. Effective programs like the Women, Infants, and 
Children Nutrition Program would be left in a vulnerable state.
  As for national defense, a government shutdown would be extremely 
damaging; and in the midst of the blockade of key military promotions, 
it would be another Republican-inflicted wound.
  A shutdown could halt our munitions production lines as it did in the 
2013 shutdown. This would be very shortsighted--very shortsighted--at a 
time when we are focused on ramping up munitions production for Ukraine 
and with an eye on future needs in the Indo-Pacific.

[[Page S4696]]

  There are several other areas where a shutdown would be harmful.
  I urge my colleagues to consider the impacts of a shutdown on our 
military men and women, their families, and our defense civilians. 
Hundreds of thousands of troops could see delays in their paychecks, 
and many civilians could lose their contracts. If the shutdown extends, 
the Defense Department will have to reduce its recruiting, training, 
and family movement activities.
  A shutdown would also include delaying needed investments in military 
infrastructure, including barracks and childcare centers. Dozens of new 
projects would not go forward.
  This would prevent the Defense Department from effectively 
modernizing and investing in new programs. There could be no new starts 
in acquisition programs or military construction projects. Hundreds of 
new start efforts in procurement and R&D would be prohibited during a 
government shutdown. As such, the Department could be forced into 
funding legacy systems that are outdated and inefficient. That is 
simply congressionally mandated waste.
  As Gen. C.Q. Brown, the incoming Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of 
Staff, has said about a shutdown, ``All the money in the world cannot 
buy more time; time is irrecoverable, and when you are working to keep 
pace against well-resourced and focused competitors, time matters.'' We 
could easily avoid this outcome by passing a short-term patch while we 
continue working toward a broader funding agreement.
  I commend the leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee--Senator 
Murray and Senator Collins--who hammered out the bipartisan continuing 
resolution before us, and also the leadership on both sides of the 
aisle. They have successfully reported out all 12 funding bills--
Senator Collins and Senator Murray--by wide bipartisan votes so that 
our appropriations process is working on a bipartisan basis and working 
on a reasonable and responsible basis. In fact, seven of these 
appropriations bills were voted out unanimously. They are well-crafted 
and free from policy poison pills.
  They fit within the bipartisan agreement among the chair, the vice 
chair, and the leaders on overall funding levels. More importantly, 
those bills meet the funding level that Speaker McCarthy demanded as 
the price of preventing the default of the U.S. Government just this 
summer.
  We should pass these bills, and we could pass them but for the 
objections of some Republican Senators who are working in concert with 
the House to obstruct the appropriations process from moving forward on 
a bipartisan basis. Their wanton nihilism is damaging our country.
  But we have before us a continuing resolution, or a CR, which, 
barring any dilatory tactics, should clear the Senate by a wide margin. 
I want to emphasize that this CR is nothing more than a patch. For a 
few more weeks, it keeps the government open; it keeps the aviation 
system operational and funded; it keeps the Flood Insurance Program 
authorized; it ensures that we will continue to take care of disaster 
victims throughout the country; and it will ensure that the Ukrainian 
people have the resources they need to win their fight for freedom.
  This is not extravagance; it is the bare minimum. The question is, 
What will House Republicans do?
  After creating a default crisis that brought the entire economy to 
the brink of disaster in June, they have accomplished virtually 
nothing. For months, House Republicans have only been able to pass a 
single funding bill. The rest of their highly partisan bills have been 
bottled up in committee or blocked from passing on the floor by 
Republicans themselves.
  In the midst of their palace intrigue, House conservatives seem to be 
trying to one-up each other with one drastic, unpopular, and 
irresponsible cut after the other. It seems to be a competition over 
whose unworkable proposal can inflict more pain. Perhaps they 
mistakenly believe that their extreme ideas are popular or that they 
will somehow hurt the President.
  But who suffers if title I education funding for low-income schools 
is cut by 80 percent? Who is harmed when 1.3 million low-income 
individuals are kicked out of the SNAP program and when food assistance 
for seniors and kids is cut by 14 percent? How do we address the lack 
of affordable housing when the HOME Investment Partnership is slashed 
by $1 billion? How does Ukraine win when Congress withholds critical 
funding?

  And let me pause here to underscore the significance of funding for 
Ukraine.
  The assistance package the President is seeking for Ukraine will 
provide much needed military assistance as well as aid to displaced 
Ukrainians whose cities and towns continue to face indiscriminate 
bombardment by Putin's forces.
  We know, if Putin is successful in seizing Ukraine, he will not stop 
there. Unless the United States and the international community 
continue to stand with Ukraine, Putin will continue to look for 
opportunities to inflict violence and violate the sovereignty and 
security of our allies and partners around the world. And if Putin 
succeeds because we have failed to help, our other adversaries and 
competitors will be emboldened too. Indeed, if Putin succeeds, he will 
not stop with Ukraine. He will threaten NATO countries.
  The bottom line, frankly, is the probability that American military 
personnel will be engaged in combat goes up. Frankly, one of our major 
missions should be to ensure, through our efforts, that that 
probability constantly goes down. We do not want to sacrifice American 
military personnel needlessly. Congress should send a strong message to 
Putin that we stand with the Ukrainians as they bravely fight for their 
homeland.
  This is the second manufactured crisis that House Republicans have 
created this year. First, they threatened to default on our Nation's 
debt. So President Biden sat down with the Speaker and negotiated an 
agreement that set spending levels for this year. Now House Republicans 
are walking away from that agreement and threatening to shut down the 
government. It won't work. The American people can see this charade, 
and if there is a shutdown, they will know who is responsible.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LANKFORD. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                Prevent Government Shutdowns Act of 2023

  Mr. LANKFORD. Madam President, I have come to this floor several 
times over the past many years and several times even recently to talk 
about a bill that Senator Hassan and I have together that we have 
worked on very hard to end government shutdown threats forever.
  This whole conversation that is happening right now in Washington, 
DC, about a government shutdown is not something that has always 
happened in our Republic. This conversation of a government shutdown 
has only really been since the mid-1980s to the present. Before that, 
there were no government shutdowns. Even when appropriations lapsed--
and we had multiple times when appropriations lapsed in the past--we 
didn't have government shutdowns at that time. It wasn't until there 
was actually an executive opinion back in the seventies that there was 
created this moment to say, no, we are going to end up having a 
government shutdown if appropriations lapse.
  We are in this moment again. This is a distinctly modern issue in 
American history that we need to bring to a close, this chapter. There 
is a way to do it.
  In conversations that we have had for years of how do we actually 
stop government shutdowns, there have been very partisan bills on both 
sides, and Senator Hassan and I sat down 5 years ago and said: Let's 
just have a dialogue. How can we stop government shutdowns without 
having a partisan bill at the end of it? It would be a way to be able 
to fix this that both sides of the aisle can say: That is a good way to 
be able to end it.
  We have a very simple goal: End government shutdowns. Do 
appropriations bills.
  That shouldn't be a radical concept. That should be a head nod from 
everybody, quite frankly, in this room to

[[Page S4697]]

say: Sure, we can agree to end government shutdowns and to do 
appropriations bills on time.
  Our simple idea was this: If you don't finish your work during class, 
you have to stay after class to finish your work. It is just not that 
hard. It is something all of us experienced growing up in school.
  If I can make it even simpler, when my older brother and I would get 
into an argument, my mom would put the two of us in a room and would 
say: You two guys have got to go in this room. Once you solve 
everything, then you can come out.
  That is the genesis of this simple bill. It says: If we don't have 
our appropriations work done and we are still arguing about 
appropriations, the government continues to function as it has in the 
past year--exact same budget line. Everything continues as normal. The 
American people are held harmless. Federal workers, Federal 
contractors--all of them--still continue as they have.
  But we experience the shutdown here in Washington, DC, not the rest 
of the country. We would be in session 7 days a week. We could not move 
the bills other than the appropriations bills. So we are locked in a 
box to say: If you haven't finished your appropriations bills, you have 
to stay overtime to finish those appropriations bills, and you can't 
move to something different than appropriations bills. You have got to 
be able to do those.
  But, again, the American people wouldn't feel it. The Federal workers 
wouldn't feel it. The Federal contractors wouldn't feel it. We would.
  If we didn't get our work done, why are the Border Patrol agents 
along the border--why are they being punished for us not getting our 
work done, because the Border Patrol agents, if we don't get this done, 
next week, they don't get a paycheck, when they have been working 
overtime hours managing 11,000 people a day coming across the border in 
chaos that is currently on our border. Those folks have been working as 
hard as they can, but because we haven't gotten our work done on the 
budgeting, now they don't get paid. Oh, but we are still asking them to 
go on the line and to risk their life for their country anyway. That 
doesn't make sense to me.
  So our simple bill is: If the problem is up here, then the problem 
should remain up here, and we should get this resolved but not actually 
put the consequences on those folks who are serving us all around the 
Nation.
  As I came through TSA, flying back to DC, as probably most of my 
colleagues did coming back this week, TSA agents whom I pass by every 
week--and we have great conversation as I pass by them in the airport 
every week. As my bag is being checked and as I am going through the 
scanner, like everyone else, the TSA agents were smiling at me saying: 
Am I going to get a paycheck next week?
  It is not an unreasonable question from them. All they want to know 
is: I am here defending the Nation. Am I still going to get paid?
  Listen, right now on the border--right now--they are being absolutely 
overrun with people coming across the border in big numbers--huge, 
overwhelming numbers. It used to be a thousand people a day. That was 
an overwhelming number. Yesterday, there were 11,000 people who crossed 
our southern border. They were literally just checked in, as much as 
could be done to be able to manage them and to be able to put them 
through.
  If we have a shutdown, they are going to lose some of their support 
help, and we are going to have even more people come just across the 
border.
  Here is what is happening. Anytime that the Border Patrol actually 
comes in and checks in, they are trying to manage the number of people 
coming between the borders. With the numbers that are coming across 
right now, those Border Patrol agents who should be in the field--who 
should actually be monitoring what is happening with the movement of 
illegal drugs across our border, illegal weapons across our border, and 
all the dynamics that are there from criminal elements moving across 
our border between ports of entry--they are not getting the opportunity 
to be able to chase those down because they are processing individuals.
  The vast majority of our Border Patrol agents, by the end of their 
time each day, are in the station, not on the line. That only gets 
worse when we have a shutdown, and they lose part of their help.
  By the way, during a shutdown, ``nonessential'' is also declared for 
the recruiting folks, which means we are not out there actually 
recruiting more agents to be able to join them to be able to get more 
help. There are more and more administrative duties being done by 
Border Patrol that we desperately need on the line. And we are grateful 
for them on the line.
  Last week, I got a notification that rail traffic had stopped in 
Eagle Pass, TX. Most folks don't even know about the truck and train 
traffic that happens around the country. They just know they go to the 
grocery store, and they buy groceries. They go to the store and buy 
clothes and furniture. They just know it is there. But that is being 
moved by a truckdriver. That is being moved by rail very often.
  Last week, in Eagle Pass, TX, DHS shut down all rail traffic there 
because a thousand migrants were riding the Mexican rail coming up 
through Mexico. They had climbed on the freight trains, and they were 
riding it all the way to the north--a thousand. But the response from 
DHS was just to shut the station down entirely. Then they took the CBP 
folks who are at that station and normally handle legal traffic coming 
north and south in and out of Mexico into the United States and out of 
the United States to Mexico. They took those CBP agents, and they moved 
them over to driving migrants to different stations for their 
processing.
  So it started out that there were a lot of folks riding the rails to 
be able to come to the United States, and it ended up being that we 
have so many people here that they literally shut it down.
  What was the effect of that? We had American train traffic going 
south into Mexico that was backed up from Eagle Pass all the way to 
Nebraska, before it was said and done.
  I was on the phone with Secretary Mayorkas saying: We have to get 
that station back open again. Do we have people illegally crossing the 
border riding the rails?
  And his answer was: No. But those agents were needed to be able to 
move migrants who were illegally crossing in other areas.
  The migration that is happening right now is not only affecting our 
national security because of the 11,000 people a day who are crossing 
our border. Those individuals, by and large, are not being checked. 
They are not being vetted. We are checking to see if they are on the 
terror watch list. For many of them, we don't have a name or an ID or a 
reliable country of origin other than the one they just tell us is 
their name or tell us is their country of origin. We have no idea.
  They are being quickly paroled into the country, awaiting a hearing 
that is often 8 to 10 years in the future--8 to 10 years before they 
even get the hearing to determine if they are even eligible to be able 
to ask for asylum. This is insanity.
  But it doesn't get better if Border Patrol loses all of its help 
during the government shutdown. It gets worse.
  So we have got to be able to do a couple of things at once. We have 
to deal with the real fiscal problems that we have. We have over $2 
trillion in overspending this year. That is a real issue we should have 
grownup conversations about on this floor.
  We have to deal with the immigration crisis and call it what it is. 
When 11,000 people a day illegally enter your country and Members of 
this body just look the other way, that is a problem. And when there is 
a national security crisis based on it, and we have Governors and 
mayors across the Nation crying out to this body and saying, ``Make it 
stop''--they are not Republican and Democrat Governors and mayors; they 
are just Governors and mayors who are trying to manage their towns and 
their States. They are saying: Why isn't the Federal Government doing 
its job? The Federal Government has a responsibility for managing the 
border. Do it.
  We have got to deal with the issue of government shutdowns. They hurt 
us more than help us. It spends more money than it saves, and it 
dramatically affects a lot of Federal workers

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around the country who just want to be able to serve their neighbors or 
to be able to do law enforcement and actually get paid for it.
  And I hear some of my colleagues and others say: They will eventually 
get paid.
  Do you know what? That might be simple for some Members in this body, 
that they are not worried about living paycheck to paycheck. But there 
are an awful lot of folks who live paycheck to paycheck, that just 
missing a couple of paychecks is a really big deal. And all of those 
Federal contractors, they don't get backpay. They just don't get paid 
at all.
  So we can't just say: They will all get paid later. They won't. 
Federal workers will eventually get backpay, but Federal contractors 
never do, and it really hurts for them. This shutdown is not their 
fault; it is ours.
  So Maggie Hassan and I just have a simple idea: Let's keep working on 
the problems, but let's not have a shutdown at the same time. Let's 
actually work out our problems in here and not hurt people all over the 
country who have no way of affecting what our debate is here. They are 
just trying to serve their neighbors. That is what I am looking for.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Baldwin). The junior Senator from Nevada.


           Anniversary of Route 91 Harvest Festival Shooting

  Ms. ROSEN. Madam President, it has been nearly 6 years since my 
hometown of Las Vegas experienced an unimaginable tragedy--an attack 
that ripped families apart, destroyed lives, and left its mark on our 
State forever.
  During any given weekend, our city is just buzzing with tourists and 
visitors from all across the country and all around the world.
  And on the night of October 1, 2017, tens of thousands of people came 
to attend a music festival. But that night--that night--would be 
different--a night that would forever change our city, because that 
night a gunman opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers. In just 10 
minutes--10 minutes--58 innocent people were struck down, hundreds of 
others were injured by gunfire, and hundreds more were hurt in the 
chaos that followed.
  In the years since, we lost more individuals as a result of this 
tragedy, the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
  Just think about what that means. It means families will forever have 
an empty chair at their kitchen table--families who will relive this 
horrific night each and every year, families who didn't get to 
celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and families who never 
got to say good-bye to their loved ones.
  That night also changed the lives of everyone here. People who were 
attending or working at the festival and first responders--well, they 
ran towards the danger. The full extent of the damage caused by this 
brutal attack can never truly be measured.
  But in this dark moment, we saw our community go above and beyond to 
help others. Las Vegas--actually our entire State--we rallied together 
not just in the immediate aftermath but in the days, weeks, months, and 
even years after.
  In the chaos and confusion of that night, our heroic first 
responders--police officers, firefighters, paramedics--ran into the 
scene to help. And their efforts that night saved lives.
  And on the following day, we saw lines of people--lines of people--
around entire blocks willing to donate blood.
  And one story really sticks out to me. I remember speaking to a woman 
waiting to give blood in line. And when I went up to talk to her, she 
lifted up her arms like this to me, and she had tears in her eyes, and 
she said: I don't have much, but I have my blood to give. This is what 
I can give.
  I remember her face to this day. It stays with me. And this kind of 
selflessness, this really embodies the incredible spirit of our 
community. And that woman's donation and the stories that she will tell 
and me meeting her has left an indelible imprint on me.
  We come together to mourn those we lost and to support those who 
survived. This horrible moment showed the country why we are Vegas 
Strong. And I am here today to honor the memories of those who were 
impacted by that terrible night.
  So as we remember and reflect on this event, we must also commit 
ourselves to action. And in the years since, we have made some 
progress. After decades of inaction, Democrats and Republicans in 
Congress came together to pass the most significant gun safety 
legislation in almost 30 years.
  This bipartisan law is making a difference, but we can--and we must--
do more to stop mass shootings. No community--no community--should ever 
have to experience the same pain and suffering that we went through in 
Las Vegas. So we can take commonsense bipartisan steps like permanently 
banning bump stocks and high-capacity magazines. These things allowed 
the shooter to fire so many rounds and cause so much carnage. And doing 
nothing is not an option.
  We owe it to those who have experienced the pain of gun violence to 
do more. And we owe it to future generations to do more.
  And at the end of the day, what this really is about is about keeping 
people and communities safe. It is about people and communities--
keeping them safe and keeping us safe. And we must keep working to 
prevent these tragedies.
  And as we approach the 6-year mark since this horrific shooting, I 
ask all of my colleagues in this Chamber to remember and honor the 
victims of October 1, their lives, their legacy, and their families.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The junior Senator from California.


                     El Monte Thai Garment Workers

  Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, there are moments in history that shock 
our national conscience, news so heartbreaking that we will always 
remember exactly where we were when we heard the news. One of those 
moments is the day the El Monte Thai garment workers were found 
enslaved in California.
  As recently as August 2, 1995, there was 72 Thai women and men who 
were discovered held against their will in the city of El Monte, CA, 
just outside the city of Los Angeles. There, in a series of apartments-
turned-sweatshops, packed in between sewing machines, forced to work 16 
hours a day, 7 days a week, and hidden behind barbed wire fences and 
armed guards, some of them believed help would never come.
  They were lured by recruiters with the promise of their own American 
dream. Seventy-two Thai women and men arrived into the United States 
only to find a nightmare.
  When they were liberated by Federal agents on that day, that 
nightmare wasn't over. Instead, they were placed into holding cells, 
where they feared they would actually be deported after the horrific 
experience. It wasn't until a 26-year-old staff attorney for the Asian 
Pacific American Legal Center by the name of Julie Su, among others, 
took on their case for backpay and for dignity in this country that 
they had once only dreamt about.
  When the 72 Thai nationals were finally, truly freed, they actually 
owed nothing to this country. Yet they stood up and they fought to 
protect others from going through the hell they had endured. Their 
advocacy led to meaningful protections in America, including the 
landmark Federal Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act, 
which created a new class of visas for victims of crimes like forced 
labor and trafficking and strengthened the penalties for trafficking 
crimes.
  Just last week, now-Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su--yes, the same 
Julie Su--had the opportunity to induct the El Monte Thai garment 
workers into the Department of Labor's Hall of Honor, honoring the 
courage they have shown and the progress they have made to protect 
other workers.
  I also had the privilege of getting to meet them in Washington last 
week, and I was proud to join Senators Duckworth and Feinstein in 
introducing a resolution to honor them by the U.S. Senate.
  But, as each and every one of them has shown us, the best way to 
respond to the atrocities they went through, the best way to honor them 
is through our action--by keeping up the fight to end human 
trafficking, by working to end wage theft that exploits far too many 
workers in the garment industry and passing the FABRIC Act, and by, in 
my opinion, finally confirming a champion for workers and worker

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rights like Julie Su to be Secretary of Labor.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.

                          ____________________